The Panthers dropped their last road match-up of the season to Murray State in five sets (25-12, 28-30, 20-25, 26-24, 15-10) Tuesday night.

Sophomore Reynae Hutchinson had a career-best 27 kills 14 digs while junior Alison Berens had 15 kills.

Hutchinson also added her 15th career kill-dig double-double.

This proved to not be enough for the Panthers, though, as Murray State had three players reach double-digits in kills in the victory to complete the season sweep.

The Panthers fall to 9-19 overall and 6-11 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

With the loss, the Panthers’ chance of getting a spot in the OVC tournament hangs in the balance.

Around the OVC

The OVC Offensive Player of the Week was junior outside hitter Nikki Doyle of Austin Peay. Doyle had 48 total kills in three matches against Morehead State, Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State.

The OVC Defensive Player of the Week was senior Paige Economos of Austin Peay. Economos recorded 83 digs in three matches against Morehead State, Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State.

Tennessee State beat rival Lipscomb University Tuesday to improve its record to 15-9 and Lipscomb University to 16-8.

Tennessee State was led by senior Shaquita Williams who had 15 kills and junior Danielle Howell who added 13 of her own.

Tennessee State and Lipscomb University traded matches with Tennessee State taking the first and Lipscomb the second.

The Tennessee State Tigers took the early lead in the third match, but Lipscomb fought back and tied it up at 17 a piece.

The hero from match one, Rebecca Moudree stayed on the court with an ankle injury, which held her out for the remainder of the game.

Just as Tennessee State was trying to recover from losing a player by bringing the score to 22-19, a second Tiger, Erika Moss, went head first into the bench chasing after a tipped ball.

Despite two injured players, the Tigers fought off a four point rally by Lipcomb to tie the match at 23-23, eventually winning the third match-up.

Although Moss and Moudree returned to the floor for the start of game four, the Tigers were still a little shaken up as they lost focus to a 9-1 finish for Lipcomb University to take match four and send the match to a decisive fifth game, which the Tigers would win.

Despite wining the first set, Eastern Kentucky fell to Morehead State 3-1 to Morehead State Tuesday (25-27, 25-22, 25-20 and 25-16).

The Morehead State Eagles clinched the Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship with the victory.

Ellie Roberson led Morehead State to their 20th victory and 15th in the conference with 20 kills while Alex Fuelling added 14 kills and 14 digs.

Lenny Arquilla can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].